Glider propulsion device



y 1931. s. A. MILLER I GLIDER PROPULSION DEVICE Filed Sept. 16, 1950 aSheet-Sheet 1 y 1 1931- G. A. MILLER 1,805,834-

GLIDER PROPULSION DEVICE Filed Sept. 16, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORGus 'g AVA -MIL LE R.

ATTORNEYS May 19, 1931. G. A. MILLER 1,805,834

GLIDER PROPULSION DEVICE Filed Sept. 16, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 0 O O o00 64 Ill INVENTOR ATTORNEYS Patented May 19, 1931 GUSTAV A.-MILLER, orSEATTLE, WASHINGTON GLIDER PROPULSION, nEvIcE Application filedSeptember 16, 1930. Serial No. 482,233.-

My present invention relates to glider construction and operation andmore particularly to a glider propulsion device.'

'Gliders may be generally referred to as motorless aeroplanes and mustrely for their sustaining force while in the air upon the action of airimpinging upon the wings, much as an aeroplane maintains itself inflight. The methods of launching gliders is varied and well known.Oftentimes, however, while in flight it is found that the air currents,either horizontal or verticah'which are required to maintain the flightof 'the glider will momentarily die out and the glider will immediatelybegin to lose elevation. This is undesirable, first, it may necessitatea forced landing where no facilities are available and, secondly, as isquite comnoon, the currents may die out for but a short period and thencome back as strong as ever. If some means is provided to assist thepilot in maintaining his elevation for a short period, the flight canthen be resumed. It is to A provide means for enabling apilot to assisthis glider in maintaining its elevation that I have provided my device.Therefore:

The principal obj eotof my object is to provide means whereby the pilotof a glidermay manually assist his machinein maintaining its elevation;a 1 r v 3 A further object a is to provide means whereby under favorableconditionsthepilot may manually supply the little additional effortrequired tolaunch his glider,

Other and morespecific objects will be ap-: parent from the followingdescription taken in: connection 'with the accompanying drawings,whereinj Figure 1 is a front view of my device as installed upon a glider withthe same in its normalv position of use. -1 ew with my auxil- Figure 2is a simllarrvi iarywings partially depressed. I Figure 3 is afragmentary cross-sectional view showing my control mechanism as itappearswith my wings as in the position indicated in Figure 2.

Figure 4, isa side elevation of a glider with my device'in placewithparts of the same broken away to better illustrate the constru0 tion.Figure 5 is a fragmentary, cross-sectional view through one of myauxiliary wings.

Figure 6 is a transverse section through one of my wings showing theshutter ar rangement in its opened position, and further illustratingits operating mechanism. 1

Figure 7 is a similar view showing my shutter closed and such parts ofthe glider as arenecessary to show the co-acting parts.

Figure 8 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view showing the controlmechanism of my device, the same showing the wings-in their normalposition.

Figure 9 is a view similar to Figure8 with the wings partiallydepressed. '7

Figure 10 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line, 1010 of Figure2. I K

Referring to the drawings throughout which like reference charactersindicate like parts, numeral 10 designates the main wing portion of anystandard glider having the passenger receiving fuselage 12 and thenecessary vertical rudder 14: and horizontal rudder 16. Convenientlyspaced below wings 10, and I have found 8 or 10 inches a convenientdistance, are two wings 20vand 22 which are hingedly secured at 24 to aframe member 26; It will be noted in Figure 10 that the twohinged joints24: are not parallel but converge to a point forward of the glider;Secured to, the upper surface as at 28 of the wings is a tension springmember 30, whichI prefer to secure to frame 26 by 5 some adjustablemeans as by turn buckle 32. The purpose of these two resilient membersis to counter-balance the weightof the wings 20 and 22 and for thispurpose any resilient H means might be used. 1. A coilspring or rubberof the proper character is ,equallysatisfactory. Wing members 20 and 22I prefer to form as a frame work 34 to which arepiv otably secured, asat 36, a plurality of shutter members. The exact shape of these shuttermembers is relatively immaterial, although I have found it a little moresatisfactory to usethe form substantially as shown in Fig: ures (Sand 7wherein eachmember 38is provided with a'lip 40; over the pivot point 36when in the closed position and gives an impinging surface for theaction of the air. In order to close shutter 38 I provide an operatingbar 42 which is pivoted by a parallelogram arrangement from points and44 and has secured to it the chutter engaging member 46. The arm 48which supports theleading end of bar 42 has a portion extending abovepivot 44 which is adapted to engage an abutment 50 to the end of closingall the shutters atIa single movement.

Any satisfactory means might be provided to give my auxiliary wings anup and down or flapping movement. I have illustrated partciularly inFigures 8 and 9, a mechanism which Ihave found particularly adaptable tothis use. This consists of a bell crank 52 which is pivoted to thefuselage at 54 and in turn has pivoted to it at 56 the arm 5.8 which inturn is pivotably secured at 60 to i the wing 22. Pivotably secured at-62 is a link member 64, which in turn is pivotably secured to the crossbar 66, which may be a separate member as indicated, or may form a partof the vertically moveable member 68.

' The wide form of members 68 is best shown in Figures 3 and 4 whereinthe two ends of member 68 are bent over and encircle vertically disposedpost 70. These bent over portions serve as spring seats for the twocompression springs 72 and74. These springs may be termed buffers and,of course, could be replaced by rubber buffers. Their purpose is to slowup the end of either the upward or downward stroke and to steer themechanism in the reverse direction. The sliding member 68 is connectedby suitable linkage 76 with thelong lever 78. Lever 78 is pivotablysecured to the fuselage frame at 80 and has its forward end bentupwardly to provide the hand lever 82. This I have elected to provide.with cross member 84 so that the convenient grips are provided so thatboth ends Inightbe used at once if desired.

In the longitudinal sectional views 3 and 4 I have shown theconventional joy stick 86 and the foot lever 88, which form parts of thestandard glider control mechanism and,

of course, is no part of this presentapplication. 7

I 2 Method of operation suflicient intensity or strength so that theglider can lift itself. My auxiliary wings in thisposition will be asindicated in Figure 1. In this position lever 48 has contacted theabutment 50 and the shutters 38 are all the closed position such asshown in Figure 7. The pilot then grips handle 84 which will then be inthe position as indicated in li igure l, and by pulling sharply to himwill pull the auxiliary wings downwardly to a point as indicated inFigure 2, or even slightly beyond that. This will give a decided upwardthrust on the machine and by the angled mounting as indicated in Figure10, a small component of the eifort will be directed to moving theglider forwardly. This may be repeated several times in .quicksuccession and under suitable conditions will be just sufficient extraraising effort to lift the glider off the ground.

A second condition will arise where the glider is in the air butlaunched in any conventional manner, and a period will be encounteredwherethe air currents are not suflicient to enable the pilot to keep hisglider in the air. Under these conditionsthe similar operation,asexplained, is gone through and if the currents,plus the effort appliedby the pilot are suificientthe glider maybe easily kept aloft.

In other words, where there is just enough driving current inthe air tokeep the glider at a given elevation, manipulation of my auxiliary wingswill enable the glider to gain elevation.

I wish it understood that I have not been able to fly a glider by meansof manual effort thus applied, although I would not care to say the samecannot-be done. The purpose of my invention is to supply at the times,most desired enough extra lifting effort to carryout the operationsasoutlined.

The foregoing description and the accompanying drawings are believed toclearly disclose a preferred embodiment of my inventionibut it will beunderstood that this disclosure is merely illustrative and that suchchanges in the invention may be made as are fairly within the scope andspirit of the following claims: 7 7

What I claim is:

1. A glider propulsion device consisting of auxiliary 'w ing'membersdisposed below the fixed wings of a glider; saidfwings being pivoted attheir adjacent ends to the glider body a hand lever; across headdisposed for vertical movement; guide forsaid cross head linkageoperatively connecting said cross head and both auxiliary wings; andlinkage operatively connecting said cross head and the hand lever.

2. A glider propulsion device consisting of auxiliary wing membersdisposed below the fixed wings of a glider; said wings being pivoted attheir acentends to the gliderbody; and are provided with a plurality ofshut ters; a hand lever; a cross'head disposed for vertical movement;guide for said cross head; linkage operatively connecting said crosshead "and both auxiliary wings ;and linkage operatively connecting saidcross head and thehand lever.

3. A glider propulsion device consistingof auxiliary wing membersdisposed below the f xed wings of glider; said wings being ody; twohinge members adapted to secure the auxiliary wings to the glider body,said hinges disposed so as to converge to a point in front of theglider; a hand lever; a cross head disposed for vertical movement; guidefor said cross head; linkage operatively connecting said cross head andboth auxiliary wings; and linkage operatively connecting said cross headand the hand lever.

4:. A. glider propulsion device consisting of auxiliary wing membersdisposed below the fixed wings of a glider; said wings being pivoted attheir adjacent ends to the glider ody, and are provided with a pluralityof shutters; a hand lever; a cross head disposed for vertical movement;guide for said cross head; linkage operatively connecting said crosshead and both auxiliary wings; linkage operatively connecting said crosshead and the hand lever; linkage secured to each shutter adapted toclose all of the same at once and abutments secured to the fixed wingsof the glider adapted to co-act with said shutter linkage to close thesame when the auxiliary wings are raised to their upper limit.

5. A glider propulsion device consisting of auxiliary wing membersdisposed below the fixed wings of a glider; said wings being pivoted attheir adjacent ends to the glider body,

and are provided with a plurality of shutters; a hand lever; a crosshead disposed for vertical movement; guide for said cross head; linkageoperatively connecting said cross head and both auxiliary wings; linkageoperatively connecting said, cross head and the hand lever; linkagesecured to each shut ter adapted to close all of the same at once;abutments secured to the fixed wings of the glider adapted to co-actwith said shutter linkage to close the same when the auxiliary wings areraised to theirupper'limit; and resilient means, each secured at one endto the glider body and at the other end to the auxiliary wings adaptedto counterbalance the weight of the said wings.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 28th day ofAugust, A. D;

GUSTAV A. MILLER.

